Sewer backups, surging river a double hit to trendy Sunnyside

Matt McClure, Calgary Herald06.19.2014

Tera Forbes and her fiance Mark Whiteside are trying to keep smiles on their faces as they assess damage to their Sunnyside duplex. They were supposed to get married next weekend in Banff, but are now looking for a less-soggy alternative.Cameron McClure
/ For the Calgary Herald

Memorial Drive has been flooded at the edge of the Bow River in Sunnyside.Alex Berenyi
/ Submitted

Calgarians have been evacuated from Sunnyside where flooding is waist-deep in some areas.Alex Berenyi
/ Submitted

Water encroaches on a home on 4A Street N.W.Cameron McClure
/ Calgary Herald

High waters cover the street at the corner of Memorial Drive and 5th Street N.W.Cameron McClure
/ Calgary Herald

Tara Forbes had been looking forward to her marriage next weekend, but this afternoon she waited anxiously near her inundated Sunnyside home for her fiance Mark Whiteside to return with a damage assessment.

The oil and gas analyst struggled to stay positive even as the skies darkened, the rain resumed, and news arrived from neighbours that the nearby Bow River had breached it berms for the second time in the last 12 hours.

"The wedding was supposed to be in Banff, but I have no idea how we'd get there with all the flood damage," Forbes said.

"Maybe we'll just fly to Las Vegas and get married quick in one of those little chapels."

The couple's million-dollar duplex is among hundreds of homes in this trendy neighbourhood across the river from Calgary's downtown that have structural damage or sodden basements from overland flooding or backed up sewers as the Bow's angry waters rose to levels not seen in over eight decades.

Historic photos from the June, 1932 disaster show homes that were hundreds of meters from the river's edge surrounded by water. City engineers trusted the storm sewer closure valves and embankments installed in the years since that flood would be enough to protect this area even if the water surged five metre above normal levels.

Frank Frigo, a senior planning engineer with the water department, told the Herald recently the earth banks were nearly high enough to protect Sunnyside in the event of a one-in-a-100 year event. Beyond that, there were plans to install temporary berms would keep the Bow River at bay.

But the city's inability to anticipate and react to what appears to be a record river flow was in evidence in the early hours and again around midday as turbid, brown water surged over the banks and the mounds of earth that work crews had hastily-installed Thursday evening to fill the chinks in Calgary's flood armour.

Still, longtime residents like Larry Kwan and Susan Ashton weren't upset even though their basements were full of water. The pair raked debris away from storm grates on their street to allow the water to drain.

"This is biblical," Kwan said.

"My daughter and my dog are safe, everything else can be replaced."

Perry Campbell, an employee with the city's water department, was manning a pair of giant, diesel powered pumps this afternoon that sucked water from overflowing manholes and spewed 30-cm-wide plumes back into the river.

Over four hours this morning, Campbell's efforts and those of other workers at the area's sewage pumping station had managed to lower the water from waist-level to knee high in the worst-hit parts of the neighbourhood.

But then the river surged over the embankments again and the clouds overhead released another deluge of rain.

"We were making some headway," Campbell said as he stared skyward.

"But we're no match for Mother Nature."

By early evening, the roiling river was still spilling into Sunnyside and police officers said they had reports the water level could surge even higher overnight.

Forbes clutched her umbrella tightly when Whiteside finally emerged from the couple's home. The news he carried to Forbes, along with a shopping bag full of salvaged beer, was not good.

Water had filled the basement of their newly built home nearly to the top step. Everything but the few valuables they had moved before fleeing the previous night was likely destroyed.

"I knew we should have got that sofa out of there before we left," he said.

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